Document

  1989
    October 1989
        Orchestral
                Sallinen Symphony No. 5. Chamber Music III. Solo Cello Sonata.

Sallinen Symphony No. 5, Op. 57, "Washington Mosaics"^a. Chamber Music III, Op. 58, "The Nocturnal [Dance] Dances of Don Juanquixote"^b. Solo Cello Sonata. Op. 26^c. ^bc Arto Noras (vc); ^b Finlandia Sinfonietta; ^a Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra / Okko Kamu.

Finlandia (Full price) (CD) 1576-53370-2 previously FACD370 (71 minutes: DDD).

It is only three years since Sallinen's Fourth Symphony appeared from Finlandia. That disc also included Shadows ( FACD346, 6/86), which had come into being in response to a commission from Rostropovich and the Washington orchestra and is related in feeling to his opera, The King goes forth to France. The opera is handicapped by its deep-seeming, pretentious libretto and thinlyspread musical invention, but Shadows itself is of a greater substance. Such was its success that Rostropovich commissioned the present symphony, which he conducted for the first time in 1985.

The work's overall form is symmetrical: the outer movements ("Washington Mosaics I" and "II") are the most substantial and frame three shorter middle movements, all called Intermezzos. Let me say straight away that readers who have enjoyed Sallinen's earlier symphonies will find much nourishment in the present work. And even if your response is not as positive as mine, you will find that it casts a strong spell. The sonorities are recognizably characteristic, there is a strong sense of nature, as indeed there was in the Third Symphony. The first movement has some Stravinskyan overtones and there is some sense of movement, even if much of the work is static, and as I noted in connection with the Fourth, the musical argument is wanting in the kind of concentration that you find, say, in symphonists of the order of Tubin, Simpson, Bentzon or Holmboe. Yet for all that, one is always drawn back into its soundworld. There are passing affinities with Britten and Shostakovich: the opening of the first Intermezzo even struck me as having mild echoes of Berg in much the same way as does some of Sallinen's countryman, Aarre Merikanto's work of the late 1920s for example. In fact the three Intermezzos are all thoroughly haunting in atmosphere and the orchestral sonorities are unfailingly resourceful and imaginative.

I found it less easy to make contact with The Nocturnal Dances of Don Juanquixote for cello and orchestra, written for the magnificent Finnish cellist, Arto Noras. It incorporates "nostalgic recollections" of the days when Sallinen was making a meagre income from playing dance music in a restaurant, and the juxtaposition of the different styles does not ring true, so disparate are their worlds. The main idea is too cheap to be accommodated in an artistically coherent framework. They are superbly played, as indeed is the much earlier Sonata for solo cello (1971). To be truthful I found this almost as shallow as The Nocturnal Dances. But the symphony is another matter and well worth investigating, and you may well respond more positively than I to the other two pieces. The recordings are well ventilated with no want of detail, and the many colours of the symphony are vividly brought to life.

RL



		It is only three years since Sallinen's Fourth Symphony appeared from Finlandia. That disc also included Shadows ( FACD346, 6/86), which had come into being in response to a commission from Rostropovich and the Washington orchestra and is related in feeling to his opera, The King goes forth to France. The opera is handicapped by its deep-seeming, pretentious libretto and thinlyspread musical invention, but Shadows itself is of a greater substance. Such was its success that Rostropovich commissioned the present symphony, which he conducted for the first time in 1985.



		The work's overall form is symmetrical: the outer movements ("Washington Mosaics I" and "II") are the most substantial and frame three shorter middle movements, all called Intermezzos. Let me say straight away that readers who have enjoyed Sallinen's earlier symphonies will find much nourishment in the present work. And even if your response is not as positive as mine, you will find that it casts a strong spell. The sonorities are recognizably characteristic, there is a strong sense of nature, as indeed there was in the Third Symphony. The first movement has some Stravinskyan overtones and there is some sense of movement, even if much of the work is static, and as I noted in connection with the Fourth, the musical argument is wanting in the kind of concentration that you find, say, in symphonists of the order of Tubin, Simpson, Bentzon or Holmboe. Yet for all that, one is always drawn back into its soundworld. There are passing affinities with Britten and Shostakovich: the opening of the first Intermezzo even struck me as having mild echoes of Berg in much the same way as does some of Sallinen's countryman, Aarre Merikanto's work of the late 1920s for example. In fact the three Intermezzos are all thoroughly haunting in atmosphere and the orchestral sonorities are unfailingly resourceful and imaginative.



		I found it less easy to make contact with The Nocturnal Dances of Don Juanquixote for cello and orchestra, written for the magnificent Finnish cellist, Arto Noras. It incorporates "nostalgic recollections" of the days when Sallinen was making a meagre income from playing dance music in a restaurant, and the juxtaposition of the different styles does not ring true, so disparate are their worlds. The main idea is too cheap to be accommodated in an artistically coherent framework. They are superbly played, as indeed is the much earlier Sonata for solo cello (1971). To be truthful I found this almost as shallow as The Nocturnal Dances. But the symphony is another matter and well worth investigating, and you may well respond more positively than I to the other two pieces. The recordings are well ventilated with no want of detail, and the many colours of the symphony are vividly brought to life.